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Letter: Hardworking Dreamers deserve our compassion

Concerning refugees and President Trump, my grandfather and grandmother Condren were refugees from poverty and hunger in Ireland. If my feisty grandparents had to break through a wall to come to America, I know they would have done that.

When the Irish came to the U.S. and struggled to find employment, they were met with anti-immigrant signs saying, “No Irish need apply.” They settled in Irish ghettos and were forced into backbreaking labor, such as digging the Erie Canal. My uncle John Condren and his workhorse team earned $1 a day helping to widen the Erie Canal.

Are your ancestors Italian, Jewish, Polish, Mexican or from Muslim or other countries? Trump’s ancestors came from Scotland, seeking a better life in America. We are all children of immigrants seeking freedom from oppression, condemnation for our race, freedom of religion or escape from poverty. Many today are fleeing the atrocities of war. What if our ancestors were barred from America? Where would we be now?

Is our president without compassion for displaced refugees such as the Dreamers? Our ancestors had dreams, too. Isn’t it our moral obligation to support DACA? A good person seeking freedom is not a crime!